Greetings from Discovery Camp! (Thursday)

THURSDAY

It was a beautiful day at camp.

We had a few stray clouds shade us in the morning and afternoon, and it almost looked like it was going to rain at one point. We're lucky it didn't because there was too much happening today for us to cancel anything!

Breakfast today was egg omelets, tater tots, toast, fruit cocktail, watermelon, and juice/water/milks. I'm never surprised by how many tater tots an 8 year old thinks he or she can eat, but needless to say that quite a few end up in the trash can every summer. Overall, it looks like food waste is down but I always cringe when I see a camper with more tots than they could eat.

Today was also a busy day in my Indian Camp activity, because we had a craft to complete, a storytelling challenge to prepare for, and everyone had to add their own symbol to the headband we're all creating everyday. There were no hikes today, although most of the kids want to go down to the abandoned mine to see if we can find any bats. Yikes! These kids have more courage than I do sometimes.

I wish there were a few more interesting things to report on. I think Thursday is really the day when you can tell if a cabin is working together or if they're getting annoyed with each other. Children are so interesting, some of them already have such strong personalities. I have called the parents of about half a dozen children to get some advice on how to guide their campers towards success here at camp, and all of them have been so understanding and helpful. 

We also tried to do more camper monitoring today. It's an entirely new experiment we're trying out this summer and about 95% of parents seem really happy with this free service. The other 5% are a bit unhappy with the content, so we are taking notes and we're going to try to improve it for next summer. I just wanted to generally thank everyone for their patience, we're doing our best and I hope you've enjoyed the updates.

For lunch we had vegetarian chicken nuggets, salad bar, corn, fruit, green jello, and we stuck to water and milk for beverages. Its a classic lunch, but we try to limit nuggets to six per camper. It's another food that can end up in the trash a bit to often. The main entrée for dinner was pizza, which was eaten to the last bite so often it almost makes up for the wasted tater tots in the morning.

I know I skipped ahead a bit, but tonight I am down the hill buying supplies, resting, and getting ready for the weekend and our next batch of campers arriving on Sunday! I know so many of you can't wait to see your children (in near/nearly mint condition) in just a few days. We're looking forward to Sabbath tomorrow night and the Pageant Play tomorrow.

Blessings,

-Jeremy

Greetings from Discovery Camp! (Wednesday)

WEDNESDAY

Today, the weather was better!

I slept through my 6:30 am alarm, but managed to start checking in with campers and staff just before breakfast. I grabbed some cereal and scoped out the campers who were eating. I think the biggest thing I noticed was some of the campers looked a little tired. We really keep the campers busy with activities, meals, programs, and rest periods, so its not uncommon to see a few of them looking a little bleary-eyed in the morning.

I stopped by and talked to every camper who seemed a bit worn out, all but one of them told me they were doing fine and having fun. One camper just wasn't feeling great (so she went to see the nurse), but I saw here at the first morning activity on my way to Indian Camp and she looked better.

We have over 100 campers this season, and I'm pretty proud of how most of them are doing. Breakfast was pancakes, fruit, water/juice, applesauce, toppings, toast/bagels, vegetarian patties, and melon. After breakfast camp really comes to life as staff and children recharge a bit and get ready for the day.

I had Indian Camp again and we went for an entire mile hike (uphill) into the mountains. It took us about 20 minutes to reach the vista point where we took a photo for Instagram, and then headed back down the mountain. After the hike was feats of strength, and we had two champions from those games. I talk a lot about Indian Camp, but it's the only activity I teach every summer and this year our campers in that group are all still on track to get their Eagle Feather.

Lunch was big franks, various toppings for hotdogs or chili dogs, watermelon, chips, chili beans, salad bar, and water/juice. It's probably the most popular meals with the campers and staff. For lunch I sat with the staff and talked about the evening program. Campers have all sorts of ideas about what the characters should be doing in the Outpost Play, and frequently communicate their desires for the characters to the actors.

It's really interesting.

The evening play allows campers to see adults making good and bad choices, and then they also get to see how those decisions affect the characters. However, since the actors are also the counselors at camp, campers have the ability to express their opinions on what's happening in the play to them. Some of the girl campers wanted one of the protagonist (good) characters to marry a rich and wealthy doctor, even though he's one of the antagonists (bad characters) in the play. When she asked them why she should marry him, one camper told her to marry him because he's rich!

Afternoon activities proceeded without a hitch. I was tied down with administrative work from 1:15 - 3:30 pm, but I managed to sneak away to see some chalk drawings of ponies and birds down at the sports rotation. Last summer we started providing campers who didn't want to play sport with colorful chalk to draw with, and the entire parking lot seems to be decorated with art from a couple of children who decided to draw versus play Frisbee, basketball, or foursquare.

Dinner was taco salad, and of course it was build your own, just like the entire buffet we serve at camp. Counselors are on hand to make sure campers make some food choices, but we also let the campers have some discretion when it comes to the food that goes on their plate. People have been asking me how serious we are on fruit and veggies and we ask the campers to build a 'colorful' plate. 

The soda machines have been off all week so far, since we find that 8-10 year olds have trouble managing their sugar intake. We've done this since 2007, but I know it catches some parents off-guard. The campers get juice, water, milk, soy milk, and rice milk but no soda unless they buy it in the store as a treat.

After free time we had our final outpost play and then sent the kids to sleep a little earlier than usual at around 9:20 pm. I think it's a good idea to give them a little more rest tonight so that they can be a little more awake at breakfast tomorrow.

Tomorrow we'll be sending out our second update for parents, so please check your junk mail.

Blessings,

-Jeremy

Greetings from Discovery Camp! (Tuesday)

Church Bowl (Tuesday)

TUESDAY

This morning when I awoke, I knew it was going to be a warm day.

I barely made it down for breakfast today, which was crosscut potatoes, eggs, toast, fruit, yogurt, and juice. I spent some of my time with cabin Nez Perce and cabin Shoshone who were already eating when I arrived. One of the campers had three bowls of cereal on his tray and I tried to talk to him down to two bowls, but he was very interested in all three bowls. I left it up to the counselor and checked in with our staff who were on their morning break.

Overall it was a morning for sunscreen, water, and anxious parents who were curious about what happened at camp yesterday. The good news is that at 9:41 am we all got our first dose of sunscreen, and all the campers had a glass of water at breakfast and during the first rotation. We also completed all of our camper monitoring requests and actually managed to call, email, or send smoke signals to everyone who asked for it this week.

Thanks again for your patience. If you're reading this and didn't get an email: please check your junk mail. As much as possible we included photos of your camper in the messages and it may be waiting for you there.

During the Discovery Session I spend every morning with the Indian Campers. Today we actually had a lot of fun, and so far everyone is completing their challenges. We stayed indoors today because of the weather, we're hoping for clouds tomorrow for our mile hike.

Lunch today was pasta, and its a personal favorite. Pasta equals bread sticks, and the bread sticks are always so soft when they've just come out of the oven. We serve regular spaghetti noodles and also tortellini with red sauce or white sauce (some campers and staff choose BOTH sauces). I think it was peas/corn/carrot cocktail for the vegetable and white cake or cookies for dessert (some of the staff have both desserts, not always the best example but we still love our staff).

For rotations I went to skateboarding and field games to play soccer. It was a really close soccer game, and both cabins scored to tie the game in the last 3 minutes. However, the thing that really stood out to me had nothing to do with the soccer game. The wind picked-up at one point and blew the shade umbrella away. We all starred and watched it blow away, except for one boy from Nez Perce, Elijah, who chased the umbrella so fast that both of his shoes flew off.

I was really impressed because he was so fast and so willing to help the staff get the umbrella back. I picked up his shoes (a must at camp) and caught up with him a few moments later. He was barely out of breath, and had a great big smile.

Thanks Elijah.

Dinner was after big event. We had to change the game a bit to make sure no one was injured. It was still fun and I was impressed at how a small change in a planned activity could still bring joy to so many children. My second favorite meal for dinner is grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. Even around 6:00 pm it's just cool enough outside to enjoy a bit of soup, and we also had a full salad bar and some other options for children who don't like cheese.

I'm going to talk about the evening program a bit more tomorrow, so that's it for now. Have a good night everyone, I'll write more on Wednesday.

Blessings,

-Jeremy

P.S. Log into Ultracamp and check out the photos from today!

Greetings from Discovery Camp! (Monday)

MONDAY

This morning we started the day with biscuits and vegetarian gravy as the main course for breakfast. After breakfast the girl counselors raised the flags and then all of the campers went off to camp council.

Pastor Dante Marruffo blessed all of us by joining us for our morning worship, which was followed by morning activity rotations and classes.  I spent the morning with our campers who are taking the Indian Camp activity, and we taught them a few games, did a craft, and went on a test hike around camp.

After mail call we went to lunch, which was a full salad bar, fruit, mashed potatoes, corn, Swiss Steaks, and a cheesecake pudding for dessert. During rest period some of the boys went out onto the field to play soccer while most of the other campers went back to their cabins for rest period.

We had a mandatory fire drill at 2:40 pm, which lasted for about 10 minutes before we could dismiss the campers to their afternoon activities. The first group we dismissed was the group that went to the Lake Hemet Waterpark. All of the girls who signed-up online were invited, and six decided to go this afternoon (two declined). They went about five minutes down the road and spent the afternoon rotation period away from camp. I spoke to all of them when they returned and I think it was a pretty big success.

On Thursday afternoon we're going to take the boys who signed up online for the Waterpark, and also invite the other girls who signed up but decided to do their cabin rotation instead.

The afternoon activities were interrupted briefly by rain for about 15 minutes, but it passed fairly quickly and we were all able to resume having fun before 4:00 pm. At 5:10 pm we all played a big group game on the field (Big Event) and several of the cabin racked up point for our Ultimate Cabin competition.

Dinner today was a full salad bar, fruit, tacos (build-your-own), with all of the fixings. It took a little longer than usual for all of the cabins to eat their dinner, but it is a little more challenging for 8-10 year old campers to design their own dinner.

After dinner we had a bit of free time before flag lowering and the evening program at 8:00 pm. Tonight we all went to the fort to watch a play before heading back to cabins to get ready for bed. The Indian Campers had their first feather challenge tonight, a maze of chairs that they had to navigate while blind-folded. All of the Indian Camper successfully made it through the maze and earned their first feather. I really thought a few of them might want to quit, but they all helped each other out to complete the challenge. It's really incredible how close these campers can get in such a short period of time.

That's all the news from camp. Some parents asked for personal updates, and the first ones will be going out tomorrow.

Writing from PSR Camp,

-Jeremy

Assistant Director

Evening Program

Evening Program